Wednesday, September 17, 2025

c. 1916 Page Brand with original shipping label

The American Sporting Auction (Syracuse, NY) taking place on September 20, 2025 features a neat paddle with an interesting history that appears to have never been used.




American Sporting Auctions
Syracuse, NY, United States
September 20, 2005
Page Brand - New York Boat Oar Company
New York, NY c.1916
54.5" long
Provenance: Private Collection Midwest
Purchased for the Raquette Lake Boys Club by Master Gordon Schwartz and still retains all the original postage and customs documents


Ezekiel Page revolutionized oar making when he patented his groundbreaking oar turning machine and, in 1843, established the New York Boat & Oar Company at 69 West Street in New York City. His invention allowed oars to be produced with unprecedented efficiency, enabling the company to become one of the largest manufacturers of oars, sculls, and paddles of its time. 

The paddle itself features a crisp Page Brand mark and retains its original copper-ridged tip, a detail that ensured durability and performance.

Most interesting is that the paddle blade Page Brand stamps along with a Canadian customs sticker and matching tag documenting its shipment across the border.  Unfortunately a worn watermark smudged the year section on the customs tag but the paddle is assumed to not predate 1916 when the Raquette Lake  Boys Club was founded.  Addressed to Master Gordon Schwartz with his name appearing on both the sticker and the tag, this object offers a rare, almost whimsical glimpse into how fine paddles were casually shipped a century ago.








Thursday, September 4, 2025

1922 Canadian Canoe Co paddles

There is an early set of Canadian Canoe Company paddles  on display at the Rondeau Provincial Park visitor centre. They were given as a retirement gift to George Bartlett, superintendent of Algonquin Provincial Park, as a retirement gift in 1922, so these predate the merger of Canadian with the Chestnut & Peterborough companies and would be considered historically significant.

More info about the paddles can be read on this Ontario Parks blog post HERE







Wednesday, July 16, 2025

Historic Paddle Art: C. Krieghoff - An Officer`s Room in Montreal

Much has been written on the site of canoe related artwork of Artist Cornelius Krieghoff. A replica of the paddle illustrated in his 1848 Lithograph, Indian Wigwam in Lower Canada was finished back in 2017.

Here's another Krieghoff painting featuring a historic paddle design. "An Officer`s Room in Montreal" (1846) features a a busy scene of a room filled with objects related to Canadiana: skates, snowshoes, fishing gear, furs, etc. The painting is believed to represent the quarters of Andrew Aylmer Staunton, an assistant surgeon with the Ordnance Medical Department assigned to the Royal Artillery in Montreal from 1845 to 1848.

Officer's Room in Montreal
Cornelius Krieghoff
Date: 1846/1846
Physical Dimensions: w63.5 x h44.5 cm
Medium: oil on canvas
Provenance: Gift of the Sigmund Samuel Endowment Fund, 1954
Royal Ontario Museum 
Accession Number: 954.188.2

Resting on the fireplace mantle is a model bark canoe with high pointed ends typical of the era. It is likely Kreighoff used this model to paint the full sized canoes used in many of his imagined scenes of indigenous life. 

Model Canoe

Tucked behind the sitting Officer appears to be a inverted canoe paddle with a long slender blade and a definite ridge in the centre. Unfortunately, the grip of the paddle is obscured by the positioning of the chair that the officer is sitting on. However, a clear pattern of decoration extending down the shaft and up to the midpoint of the blade shows a contrasting red and blue pattern. There also appears to be a sort of black leafy pattern on the central part of the blade. Although Kreighoff painted many repetitive scenes with decorated paddles in his works, I've never come across this same decoration pattern.

Closeup of inverted paddle





Thursday, May 22, 2025

Historic Paddle Photo: Archive.org

A photo dated to 1902 showcasing some paddles and a very early style of canvas canoe in the New Brunswick area...


Lake Nasahie, New Brunswick, 1902 August 21
by Ervin S. Hubbard
Prescott and Seward floating canoe over Outlet of Lake Nasahie







Thursday, April 17, 2025

Historic Paddle Photo: Wisconsin Ojibwa Paddle

Here's a 1908 photo showcasing a woman and child posing with a birchbark canoe found in the online collection of The Langlade County Historical Society.

Woman and child with a birch bark canoe, 1908
Kingsbury, Arthur J., 1876-1956
Format: Glass negative
Description
An adult and child appear to be preparing to launch a birch bark canoe. 
Handwritten caption reads: "Copyright 1908 by A.J. Kingsbury, Antigo, Wis."
 Langlade County Historical Society


The closeup of the paddle shows a very interesting grip shape, a sort of stubby pommel.

Paddle Closeup

It is similar in design to the "Chippewa Woman's Paddle" in the collection of the Smithsonian discussed in the 2017 post here.

Bureau of American Ethnology
BULLETIN 86 - Chippewa Customs
Plate 53




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